When I first moved into this state I knew nothing about chickens. After finding out about the joys of chickens from a friend (who is in Lovettsville too btw) I decided to start my own little flock. I cannot say enough good things about the experience.
Of course, where there is joy, there is always someone who wants to destroy that joy. And my neighbor (a renter) who has nothing better to do with his time than play video games all night and collect a paycheck from the government for being too "crazy" to work decided that my birds were keeping him awake in the mornings when he was busy sleeping after a long night of gaming. He started calling animal control for every little thing. My property is not very large, just about 2 acres; most of which is uphill. I have had to learn the hard way that chickens love to escape and explore new places to forage and lay eggs.
After the last call to animal control, he called zoning thinking that they would force me to get rid of my flock. He was very wrong. Amazingly, Frederick County was supportive of my hobby and were very helpful teaching me what I needed to do to keep my flock. It probably helped that this guy next door called them telling them that it was their duty to force me to rid of my chickens, which is ridiculous in itself. Even though the process is a slow one, and it cost me 100 bucks I am glad to have found out about the agricultural exemption process so that I can stay legal and in the clear with the county. Showing up to a hearing is not the worst thing to happen but it is stressful.
I will need to move my flock up the hill to a location that is 50 feet from all property lines. This is hard for me, especially due to the nasty winter we are experiencing. My ladies have been staying warm in their coop close to the house where predators leave them alone most of the time. I have built that coop up to deter any predation and the design was a good one. Unfortunately moving the coop up the hill is going to be really difficult without a forklift, loader or some other type of farm implement that I just cannot get ahold of. So frustrating! Eventually I am going to lose that coop and have to build a new one, but time is not on my side and hopefully the county will allow me the time I need to build a new coop up on the hill. Moving the ladies up there will be within zoning guidelines but will put them in harms way. I am going to be spending a lot of time worrying about my ladies. Even worse is that I was in the process of growing my flock of egg layers when all of this hit, so I have a bin of silkies in the house and a gaggle of hens growing out in a pen that is way too small. I feel terrible about this but spending a huge amount of money on new housing is going to be impossible until I know for sure that my birds can stay. I don't blame the county as much as I blame the worthless, sack of poo that lives next door who has nothing better to do than whine about my chickens.
Rants aside I would love to get to know other like-minded chicken owners around this place. I rarely get to talk to others about my endeavors to learn chicken keeping and growing my own food. If you happen to need help building or creating spaces for your chickens let me know, I am always happy to lend a hand to a fellow chicken keeper.
Are you raising them for Eggs? Food? Show? Or all of the above?
I had planned to sell my eggs as the demand is high for fresh, colorful eggs. I also eat the boys when they are not breed worthy. So far my quest to find a quality Black Copper Maran to mate to my beautiful girls has proven fruitless and the gorgeous speckled rooster I found ended up being too aggressive to keep. Of course, every time I acquire a rooster the neighbor goes crazy, maybe he should have thought about that before he moved out to the country.
Stay warm my friends!
